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Biolite's Smokeless Fire Pit Makes Camping Easy On The Environment

If you're a nature lover, you probably love nothing more than being in the great outdoors on a starlit night, roasting marshmallows on the open fire, and cooking a meal on your trusty camp stove. But that means you also probably care about the environment and don't want to contribute to environmental destruction. And the bad news is, that campfire releases carbon and soot into the atmosphere, and burning wood isn't exactly the most efficient fuel source, not to mention the propane required to fuel that stove. Luckily, one company is developing products that will allow you to keep up your favorite pastime without harming the environment.

Biolite has several products aimed at greening up your camp experience. Its portable CampStove is a thermoelectric stove that allows weekend campers to cook meals and boil water without the use of fossil fuels or other non-renewable sources. By using handfuls of small biomass materials such as twigs and windfall branches, CampStove cuts fuel consumption in half and harmful emissions by 90 percent. On top of that, the surplus energy created by the biomass is converted into electricity, which can be used to charge your phones and tablets.

Biolite also offers a larger version of the camp stove called BaseCamp. In addition to a larger cooking surface, BaseCamp has a bigger fuel port on the side for adding wood into the stove, and can switch from grilling to boiling foods with just the shift of a lever. The BaseCamp also generates more electricity than the CampStove, and includes an integrated battery for energy storage. It also has a small flexible task light so you can see what you're doing when night falls.

Biolite's newest product is aimed at solving the carbon output of an open fire. By facilitating a more efficient combustion process than an open fire, the FirePit uses up to 50 percent less wood (or charcoal), while also reducing harmful emissions. It does this by injecting additional air into the fire with a battery-powered fan located inside its USB-rechargeable power pack.

"By injecting a steady flow rate of air into the fire this way, FirePit is able to optimize combustion, eliminating the “wasted fuel” that results in smoke, but keeping the crackling, smell, and feel of a robust wood fire," according to Biolite.

This also creates a more consistent temperature as well as mixing the gases inside the fire to improve combustion. The fan also has four speeds so you can control the intensity of the flames and heat output. FirePit's battery pack is capable of running for as long as 24 hours on the lowest setting and five hours on the highest setting. It also comes with a companion app, which allows users to monitor the battery life as well as to remotely adjust the fan setting.